Associate Professor of Applied Disability Studies Julie Koudys has earned global recognition for her extensive service and public advocacy in Canada and around the world.
Koudys was awarded the 2026 International Advancement of the Practice of Behavior Analysis Award by the Association of Professional Behavior Analysts (APBA), the world's largest professional association for Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), at a recent event in New Orleans.
Associate Professor Julie Koudys says her 2026 International Advancement of the Practice of Behavior Analysis Award reflects a department that places high value on serving and engaging with the community.
In addition to her impactful research and teaching at Brock, she is involved with the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis (ONTABA) and served for several years on the Ontario government's Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Expert Committee and the Ontario Scientific Expert Taskforce for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, where she contributed to the development of evidence-based practice guidelines, ethical standards and the provincial regulation of ABA practitioners.
She currently serves as the International Representative on the Board of Directors for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), providing international perspective to a predominantly American body that serves as the international certification board for the field.
"I have spent a lot of my career balancing more traditional faculty roles of research and teaching with service," says Koudys. "In our applied program, the vast majority of our students are going out to work professionally with clients, so carving out the time to serve professional organizations is really important."
Koudys says it was "humbling" to be recognized alongside other 2026 awardees whose work she uses in her teaching and research with an award that is consistent with the value she places on elevating the practice of behaviour analysis and serving the field in multiple meaningful capacities.
"We are Ontario's largest face-to-face master's-level ABA program and one of only two PhD programs in the country, so I think we have a responsibility to contribute to the development of the profession," she says. "We work hard to support our students as they develop skills and our practicum supervisors as they work to engage in good supervisory practices, all in order to ensure better service provision across the province."
Koudys notes that her departmental colleagues have also been recognized by the APBA in recent years. In 2024, Professor Rosemary Condillac received their inaugural Excellence in Ethical Practice Award for her leadership, teaching and clinical mentorship in ethics in ABA. Associate Professor Kendra Thomson received the 2022 Jerry Shook Award in honour of concrete and notable accomplishments in advancing sound professional credentials in the practice of ABA.
"It speaks to the values of the department and our efforts to create a landscape of professional, safe, effective behaviour analytic training, research and service provision," says Koudys. "Our dedication to community contribution and capacity development has meant we have a pretty outsized role in the international community."
The department was also recently highlighted in a study on research productivity among ABA departments, with Brock's research outputs ranking second in the top ten.
